1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to improvements for a photocopy machine, and more particularly, pertains to a document handling device apparatus for placement onto a reciprocating document carriage of a photocopy machine for photocopying documents such as billing statement ledger cards.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the field of photocopying, it has been a general practice to photocopy various sizes of documents, particularly those denoted in the art as billing statement ledger cards such as those commonly utliized by doctors. The most common size of document utilized by doctors is the 51/2 .times. 81/2 inches billing statement ledger card which is now considered the industry standard size to which most billing systems are oriented. The term "document" used in this specification is not to be limited to only billing statement ledger cards, but is to also include documents such as invoices, purchase orders, etc. which have similar dimensions.
In the past, documents such as billing statement ledger cards were photocopied on a one-by-one individual basis by manually lifting a cover, usually a rubber mat to shield the exposure access window covering the reciprocating document carriage of the photocopy machine; manually inserting and positioning a billing statement ledger card therebetween the cover and a transparent glass cover of the carriage; making a predetermined number of photocopies of the statement ledger card, usually one; again raising the cover; and, finally, manually removing the photocopied billing statement ledger card. The order of manual steps is again repeated for each individual document to be photocopied which is less than satisfactory as this resulted in an expenditure of large amounts of time and laboring energy with respect to all the manual manipulations required to photocopy each individual billing statement ledger card in addition to being extremely tedious and boring to the photocopy machine operator.
Time-motion studies have shown the photocopying billing statement ledger cards as described above is expensive, but yet not too expensive to warrant photocopier users such as doctors justification to purchase expensive complex photocopying equipment, especially in view of a limited number of billing statement ledger cards to be photocopied and mailed to their respective accounts each month. For these reasons, many offices continue to go through the time consuming motions necessary to photocopy billing statement ledger cards.
This invention fills the need for a document support apparatus to reduce time, labor, and manual manipulations required in photocopying a plurality of documents such as billing statement ledger cards.